Holden Commodore Calais Redline sedan by Bob Nettleton

At last a car for those seeking genuine Aussie V8 power and handling without the alter-ego styling associated with these eight-pot performance heavy-hitters.

The Commodore Calais V Redline sedan captures the performance and handling attributes of the loud and proud Commodore SS V8 in respectable looking top-end large luxury sedan. It’s a bit of a “Wolf in sheep’s clothing” scenario that works remarkably well and opens up the world of old-fashioned Holden V8 grunt to a whole new group of buyers.

The Series 2 Commodore launched a bit over a year ago only extended to some subtle cosmetic changes that all except the staunchest of Holden devotees would notice. Some new technology was thrown into the mix including an all-new infotainment system delivering full Bluetooth®, USB, iPod® and MP3 player integration. All of this can be easily managed, even by a technophobic like me, via an easy to use touch screen located in the centre console.

For car that has just ticked over five years on the market, this is one has barely been trampled by the march of time and remains one of the best looking big cars on our market. Given this you can understand Holden’s reluctance to tamper much with its appearance as part of the Series 2 make over. The Calais has held flagship status in the Commodore range for a long time but it costs a minimum of $66,790 to hop on board with the 3.6 litre Calais V-Series. The lavishly equipped V8 Redline version provided for this road test is just over $75,000. Some may wince at the prospect of paying that amount of money for a large Aussie luxury car but a fair number of their car Badge snobs who fail to appreciate just how much quality luxury car they getting. Calais Redline buyers are totally indulged with luxury features such as leather seats, leather wrap gear selector, 9-speaker sound system, 8-way electric adjustment of the front seats and 19-inch alloys. Night driving is anything but a stab in the dark with the cars powerful projector headlamps lighting the way.

Appropriately this premium Commodore scores Holden’s premium engine 260kw 6.0 litre V8. This rather substantial slab of iron is an amazingly potent performer given it draws fairly heavily on old-school technology with its over head valve design in an engine world where twin over head cams and 4 valves per cylinder rule. With a sea change toward smaller turbo engines as the power base for our cars of the future this monster 6.0 litre V8 is probably on borrowed time. It was great to enjoy an engine that in 3-5 years time may be a memory instead of cooking up the performance storm its does today.

For smoothness, refinement, tack sharp throttle response plus a wonderful 8-cylinder burble, this engine absolutely nails the lot. I do not mind admitting this motor took me without getting to whimsical, on slightly nostalgic trip back a few decades when many dreamed of owning a V8 and only few ever did. The Commodores advanced six-speed automatic manipulates the engine huge reserves of power to perfection with its clinically efficient gear changes. Who says automatics cannot multi-task? Well this one does, expertly threading the line between performance and fuel economy to deliver emphatically on both counts.

You would expect and get lots of passenger plus load space in a big sedan like this one. It is a car that will appeal to traditionalists who still have a soft spot for rear wheel drive and those who do a bit of serious towing.

In the past the build quality of the Commodore has verged on scratchy but concerted efforts by Holden over the last five years to raise the bar in this area are, based on what I saw in the test car, starting pay dividends. Sure the detailing is not perfect, but it is slowly getting there and it needs to at a slightly faster pace for a car that is now sold on the world stage, where buyer’s expectations around the fit and finish are far more exacting.

Powering through the first bend in the Redline Calais and you instantly appreciate there is something very different about the way it confidently carves through the corners compared to the regular Calais. In Redline form the car picks up FE3 sports spec suspension which in tandem with super meaty low-profile tyres, has enabled Holden to create its best handling luxury sedan yet. The tauter suspension that is at the very core of the car impeccable road holding does see some trade-off in ride comfort. This is most noticeable in town driving where the extra starch in the suspension generates more thumps and thuds over uneven surfaces, earning it a few demerit points for ride quality and refinement. I found the trick was to focus on the cars excellent handling and this made its slightly ragged low-speed ride seem far less of an issue.

What is the verdict? Aussie V8 grunt without the loud styling.